A.G. Nominee Drawing Opposition

Loretta Lynch, President Obama’s nominee for Attorney General, began her confirmation hearings yesterday. Republican Senators were particularly curious about Lynch’s perception of President Obama’s executive order on immigration. When pressed on the matter, Lynch said Obama’s actions were reasonable and a function of his prosecutorial discretion.

Ted Cruz (R-TX) pushed Lynch on the matter, asking her if a future president might have the prosecutorial discretion to lower taxes by not enforcing higher tax brackets via the I.R.S. Lynch did not answer Cruz’s question directly. Both Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and David Vitter (R-LA) have stated they will vote against Lynch’s confirmation. Session’s primary concern appears to be Lynch’s claim that illegal immigrants have a right to work in America. There still seems little chance Republicans will defeat her nomination in the Senate.

Here is a summary of the hearings, as well as a brief description of Lynch and her background.

Education Reform

Howard Fuller, via A.E.I., delivers an intriguing talk on education reform here. Fuller argues, I think persuasively, that reform will ultimately come from those who will most benefit from it, not from outside agitators, regardless of the quality of their intentions or their arguments.

Could “Jungle” Primaries Moderate American Politics? Probably Not.

538 has an interesting piece up on Washington state’s primary system, which allows the top two finishers to compete head-to-head in the general election, regardless of party affiliation. So, in a heavily Republican district, if the top two Republicans square off in November, the entire district gets to decide which Republican to support. Democrats and Independents, at least theoretically, could then pull the GOP candidates toward the center, thereby giving candidates an incentive to appeal to a broader base of support.

This is especially relevant because U.S. House districts are becoming less and less competitive over time. Since many incumbents aren’t worried about how they are perceived by other party members, they have no reason to compromise or to represent all the voters in their district. This is one explanation for why Congress has had such a difficult time passing meaningful legislation in recent years.

This assumes, however, that voters are knowledgeable enough to make fine distinctions between two candidates of the same party. U.S. House contests are low-level information elections. Name recognition matters far more than ideological stances in most races. It is unlikely that voters would find or retain the kind of information necessary to reach such a conclusion. Louisiana has had this primary system for decades and California also recently adopted it. As the article notes, I am not sure there is much evidence that this process alters outcomes significantly, at least not yet.